tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274454770346201479.post3641456918566585119..comments2024-03-29T03:48:14.600+01:00Comments on Evert's World of Music: Will 2014 be the Year of the Third Dutch Folk-Revival?Evert Bisschop Boelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13102602767225188146noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274454770346201479.post-6083249079021985332014-01-11T17:03:14.031+01:002014-01-11T17:03:14.031+01:00About the last part of your reply: I may not have ...About the last part of your reply: I may not have been there but I know what is going on at Noordpolderzijl. It's a pool of sin! :)<br />Harry van Tilnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274454770346201479.post-24953592022923761212014-01-11T15:13:15.232+01:002014-01-11T15:13:15.232+01:00A long reaction deserves a long answer. But I'...A long reaction deserves a long answer. But I'll try to keep the long answer short.<br /><br />Folk music doesn't exist. Folk music is a label, attached to certain music for various reasons in various times. I am not really interested in what folk music is, objectively (there is no answer to that) nor in the quality of folk music or its revivals. I am interested in the phenomenon that people in some times apparently feel the need to label something as 'folk music'.<br /><br />In the Netherlands this happened for a fact at least in the interbellum as well as in the 1970s/1980s (and this is something else than Irish music being popular around the same time. That is not what I mean by the second Dutch folk revival - there is a relation, of course, but the Dutch folk revival was carried by groups like Fungus or De Perelaar). And maybe we are on the brink of this happening again: a bunch of people claiming that some music is 'really Dutch music' and that it needs to be revived. That seems to be Ancora's position. Whether it really will get a hold on many people and will be taken up by other musicians is still to be awaited. Personally I don't think it will - but one never knows.<br /><br />I don't believe the high number of an audience is an indicator of bad taste - or, reversely, that music played for near-empty concert-halls must be excellent because nobody listens to it (and therefore should be subsidized, as some people tend to think). Actually, I don't believe in good and bad taste, only in taste, as you know. And I think music is made to be listened to, so if many people listen to something, that's great.<br /><br />The Germany thing is remarkable, indeed. I am not claiming that singing German shanties are part of a Dutch folk revival. But it may well be that the German element stands for a longing for an idealized Dutchness. "I wish we were like them".<br /><br />If singing songs you don't understand dismisses you as a musician, or bad pronunciation of a foreign language, there is little true musicking going on. I, for a start, sing in DInglish, and my Frisian is worse - and I sing quite some songs in Dutch I don't really understand, but nevertheless like. <br /><br />Shanty choirs, of course, do not consist of singing sailors. Their members know that very well, they're not stupid. They are not sailing, they are performing music (sometimes they do that on a boat; often they then become seasick). The question what real sailors would do with shanty choirs is therefore - although lovely to imagine - hardly relevant.<br /><br />Finally: the 'never been sailing'-argument is always lovely. I wonder what spectators must conclude from the fact that you and I take part in singing New York Girls (for the uninformed reader: check Bellowhead on YouTube)...Evert Bisschop Boelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13102602767225188146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274454770346201479.post-83690502054642213632014-01-09T22:35:05.272+01:002014-01-09T22:35:05.272+01:00Dear Evert,
You know how much I appreciate your v...Dear Evert,<br /><br />You know how much I appreciate your view on music in general. But this sounds a bit steep for me. A third Dutch Folkrevival. There wasn't even a second one. I'll explain this later on.<br />Just the fact that more and more people like seashanty's doesn't say anything about an upcomining folkrevival. Folk, as you know, is much more than just shanty's. In my opinion it only shows an increase of bad taste! The mere fact that 1.5 million people watched 'Utopia' shows evidence for this. What makes it even stranger is the fact (as you stated in an earlier blog) that a lot of people from Holland go to Germany to attent a Shantychoir ''concert or show' whatever you call it. So this Dutch folkrevival is actually taking place in Germany?<br />If people are watching a Shantychoir does this automatically mean they like Shantychoirs? I must admit I myself have watched shantychoirs myself now and then but just in utter amazement: Adult men singing songs they don't truly understand in a lanquage they dont'master. Men who have never been to sea, never sailed a cippler or whatever.<br />It takes more to evoke a third folkrevival.<br />About the second folk revival: Folk as an exportproduct from the Celtic Tiger. For most people folk had just a strong association with alcohol.<br />For this people Folk didn't mean rousing instrumentals, nice songtext, history etc. but just the idea: folkmusic? Where's the beer?<br />In my opinion a second (there wasn't a second, there will be no third for a long time) folkrevival would mean a renewed interest in Irish, Schottisch, English, American, Swedish etc. etc. Folk.<br />Meanwhile you can sing your shanty's of course. But keep in mind that real sailors would have drowned the accordionist (if they ever had one onboard). The sea herself would take care of the electric bassplayer, no doubt.<br /><br />Harry van Tilnoreply@blogger.com